The History of Millennium Force

When Millennium Force opened in 2000 it created a whole new class of roller coaster. It was the first complete coaster ever to stand more than three hundred feet tall, and a quarter century later it is still ranked among the best rides in the world.

The first giga

Built by Intamin and engineered by the legendary Werner Stengel, Millennium Force rose 310 feet with a three hundred foot drop, and Cedar Point coined a new word for it, the giga coaster. It opened breaking five world records at once, including the tallest and fastest complete-circuit coaster and the steepest banked turn, a 122-degree overbank. Its records did not even last the summer, because Steel Dragon 2000 opened in Japan that August, but its reputation has lasted far longer than any record.

The relentless cable

Most coasters crawl up their lift hill on a chain. Millennium Force does not. It uses an elevator-style cable that hauls the train up the 310-foot climb at around fifteen miles per hour, so the ride never pauses to catch its breath before the eighty-degree first drop. That relentless pace is why it endures. Werner Stengel, who has engineered more than five hundred coasters, has called Millennium Force his personal favorite, and readers of the industry's awards voted it the world's best steel coaster ten separate times.

Sister coasters

True giga coasters are rare. The closest relative to Millennium Force is Pantherian at sister park Kings Dominion, which opened in 2010 as Intimidator 305, the second Intamin giga ever built in North America and a direct descendant of this ride. For years those two Cedar Fair parks held nearly the whole giga club between them.

One thing to know

The cable lift is the secret to the ride's pace. Because a cable can haul a train up far faster than a chain, Millennium Force crests its 310-foot summit at about fifteen miles per hour instead of crawling, feeding straight into the ninety-three mile per hour drop.

Millennium Force is one chapter in the history of Cedar Point.

Millennium Force at a glance